Hello there! WhatsApp is calling India on video

NEW DELHI: India is the largest market for WhatsApp globally, said the instant messaging service on Tuesday, as it rolled out in-app video calling for its users. Launching the feature from India underlines the importance of the market for the company.

"In India, we have more than 160 million monthly active users," said Neeraj Arora, head of business for WhatsApp, in an interaction with ET on Monday. "This is something we are very excited about. We have more users in India than in any other country in the world," he added.

Delhi native Arora made headlines in 2014, when WhatsApp was acquired by social networking giant Facebook. He was credited with being an important part of the way the deal was structured, and two years later, his LinkedIn bio still says he does "all things business at WhatsApp!" While India has been the largest market for WhatsApp for a while, the scale has now increased -the number of monthly active users (MAUs) has nearly doubled from 2014, when it had 70 million MAUs.It is also higher than the 155 million MAUs for parent Facebook in India.

Video calling is "a big step forward" for the company that has always had a lean team - it has under 200 employees today-and Arora said, "We want to make sure we give every possible way for people to stay in touch with their families and friends. Video calling is the most immersive (experience) and something that makes you feel really close to somebody else."

Talking about the evolution of WhatsApp from an update-only app in 2009 to video calling on Tuesday, Arora alluded to the fact that several early features in the app were designed keeping Indian conditions in mind, given its myriad issues of choppy connectivity and different phones being used. The idea, he said, was "if it works in India in different conditions, it will work everywhere else."In spite of the huge numbers, WhatsApp doesn't "have any immediate plans to do any remote teams, but if the need arises in a certain country...we'll evaluate it," said Arora.

In August this year, WhatsApp changed its privacy policy to allow better integration with Facebook, and also said it was part of its “plans to test ways for people to communicate with businesses in the months ahead“. A common question around the update has been whether this would increase spam and breach user privacy.

"What we are going to allow is businesses that you really want to hear from, that you really care about, will be able to send messages and you will have the control. If you don't like that, you can opt out of it, you can block it," Arora said.

For example, your bank or airline, which already has your number, can reach out and say your balance is low, or your flight will be late. "At that point I can say this is useful or I don't want it and I can block it," he added.

WhatsApp has a team that looks at eliminating spam in the system, which helps to block people who send out spam or unsolicited messages.

Earlier this year, WhatsApp also enabled end-to-end encryption on the platform to ensure that only the sender and receiver can see their chats. The same feature is available in video calling. While it was hailed as a great move for user privacy, it has caused heartburn for law enforcement agencies.

"We have open dialogues with the governments all across the world.But the really important thing to understand here is we don't store chats. In cases where there is a request which is channelled through the proper process, whatever little we have, we share with governments," Arora said. WhatsApp's US policy team works closely with Facebook's policy teams in different regions.

Wrapping up the discussion, Arora answered the most important question on everyone's mind in India today - does he have enough cash to get through his stay in India amid demonetisation? "Thankfully my parents live here and they had some cash so they've been loaning me some. I am only here for a few days thankfully and I don't need too much. I am surviving," he signed off.

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Several people ET spoke with about Ericsson’s India operations, including its current and former employees, said the Stockholm-based firm has reduced headcount in the last one year or so across functions, in line with its global restructuring.

Several people ET spoke with about Ericsson’s India operations, including its current and former employees, said the Stockholm-based firm has reduced headcount in the last one year or so across functions, in line with its global restructuring.